Peter Chiarelli impressed with David Pastrnak, not ruling him out joining Bruins this season

Sunday

Jul 13, 2014 at 1:11 PMJul 13, 2014 at 1:17 PM

The Bruins have a need for a right-hand shot at right wing. First-round pick David Pastrnak is a skilled righty winger.

By Dan CagenDaily News staff

WILMINGTON — The Bruins have a need for a right-hand shot at right wing. First-round pick David Pastrnak is a skilled righty winger.

So is the 18-year-old a candidate to still be in Boston in October? It’s a long shot, but general manager Peter Chiarelli isn’t ruling it out.

“You never know,” Chiarelli said Sunday on the final day of the team's development camp. “For me, you don't want to place too much of a burden on this kid's shoulders, but he was good. The hesitation you have is he's 170, 173 pounds, but he's wiry strong, so you never know. Speed, skill, sense is all there. It would be nice, but we'll see. He's young, so to throw someone at that age and that weight — but there have been guys that have done it.”

This is the eighth season the Bruins have held development camp and Chiarelli noted there have only been "a couple people" that have displayed the skill set Pastrnak did over the past five days. The Czech winger was selected with the No. 25 pick in last month's draft.

By Tuesday, Chiarelli hopes to sign Pastrnak to his entry-level contract. That's the deadline to sign Europeans, although he could be signed after that with a fee paid to the Swedish federation (Pastrnak plays for Sodertalje of the Swedish league Allsvenkan).

Chiarelli expects Pastrnak to be at training camp, and he could play nine games for Boston without burning the first year of his contract. How Pastrnak performs in training camp and in preseason games, a far different setting than the skill-oriented development camp, will go a long way in determining the youngster's immediate future.

“There's a progression, right? There's the [training] camp, bigger, stronger, faster,” Chiarelli said. “There's the preseason, bigger, stronger, faster. And then for the under-20 players, you've got that cushion, that nine games, again, bigger, stronger, faster [in the] regular season. So there's three levels there. In my time here and before I was here, we've had under-20 players play. I've had under-20 play, teenagers, and they go through each of those stages — it's another test, another test and then you make a decision.”

Since Chiarelli became GM in 2006, there have been four teenagers to play for the Bruins — Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic, Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton. Only Kessel and Seguin did so the same year as being drafted.

The Bruins have a need for right-hand shots after letting Jarome Iginla and Shawn Thornton go to free agency this summer. Among their signed forwards, only centers David Krejci and Patrice Bergeron are right shots, and the group of prospects who could fill in as a lefty-heavy group.